Slate: What’s it like to shoot Obama with his family?
S.T.: He’s so much happier and more relaxed. I mean, I don’t know any of
this for sure. But when he’s around his family, he seems the happiest
that you ever see him. He and the first lady are so focused on each
other. The way that they play off each other and get energy from each
other… when I was shooting the president during the 2008 campaign I
would watch them greet each other on stage and I used to text-message my
boyfriend, now my husband: “Do you love me as much as Barack loves
Michelle?” and he’d be like, “Probably not, no.”

Slate: How is their relationship aspirational?S.T.: Well, I’m young and I’m in a new marriage. The way that they relate to each other—they just celebrated their 20th anniversary–the
way they enjoy each other and listen to each other, and the real
respect that they have for each other is something I would like to see
in my relationship twenty years from now.

Slate: How did you feel when you saw the Economist cover using a similar image, along with the headline “Now, Hug a Republican”?
S.T.: I haven’t seen it! I have not had a chance to leave this office.

Slate: When you shot the hug, back in August, did you have any sense that you had gotten something special?
S.T.: Any interaction between the two of them is always going to be the
best stuff that I shoot in any given day, almost without exception. So
yes, I guess.

Slate: What is the process like, shooting for the campaign? Do you give them everything? Do an edit?S.T.: I do an edit for the campaign, and they push some of it
out and keep some for later. We use the pictures on Facebook, on
Twitter, but everything gets kept. But I did the initial edit, probably
sitting in the back of a van on the way to or from an airport, trying to
get an Internet signal in Iowa, which is near impossible. There were a
couple of similars to that image, but that was the one I chose.

Slate: This will probably become the most iconic
image you shot during this campaign. Before it was released on Tuesday
night, were there other shots you thought would be your lasting images
from 2012?S.T.: There was the bear hug in Florida [taken when Obama was
embraced and lifted off the floor by pizza shop owner Scott Van Duzer].
The bear hug, that was like one of these perfect moments: You’re
standing in the right place, you have exactly the right lens, and you
frame it perfectly. Everything just worked out.

Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America

It was so shocking that I gasped out loud—I think you can hear me on
the video—when he picked up the president. Afterwards we were all
walking around in a daze, just like “He picked up the president.” The
president’s response was kind of amazing. If someone had picked me up I
would have made a shocked face. He just shrugged his shoulders and
looked at the head of his secret service detail.
And there is also a picture from Florida, of the president speaking with school children, and two in the back row are kissing.

Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America

Slate: I’ve seen that. Did you know when you shot it that you’d captured the kissing kids?S.T.: Not until afterward. I showed [presidential adviser]
Valerie Jarrett, and she made me show the president. Everyone on the
campaign was like, “That’s hilarious, he’s going for it!” “Kid’s got
game!”

Updated with a disclosure: Julia Turner and Scout Tufankjian are old friends.

<< when I was shooting the president during the 2008 campaign I
would watch them greet each other on stage and I used to text-message my
boyfriend, now my husband: “Do you love me as much as Barack loves
Michelle?” and he’d be like, “Probably not, no.”>>

<< when I was shooting the president during the 2008 campaign I
would watch them greet each other on stage and I used to text-message my
boyfriend, now my husband: “Do you love me as much as Barack loves
Michelle?” and he’d be like, “Probably not, no.”>>

<< when I was shooting the president during the 2008 campaign I
would watch them greet each other on stage and I used to text-message my
boyfriend, now my husband: “Do you love me as much as Barack loves
Michelle?” and he’d be like, “Probably not, no.”>>

At least he's honest?

lol I'm just playin'. That's not something you want to hear from your SO eva.

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